


Just a Young Gun with a Quick Fuse

by Td03



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: 1827, 6927, All27 - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M, Platonic Romance, R27 - Freeform, Sealed Flames, Supernatural Abilities, though there will be hints of a more romantic pairing if you squint, x27
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-12-12 08:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11733618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Td03/pseuds/Td03
Summary: Mare Sky sees their parallel lives. Vongola Sky traverses it not unlike a waterfall. Arcobaleno Sky serves as their anchors. Byakuran can see his alternate-selves' lives. Yuni have visions of the future. Imagine Tsuna being able to catch glimpses of the past.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A little irked at the implication that people with flames will have "two personality options" when they're born, like if one is a Cloud they'll either resemble Hibari Kyouya (Classic) or Skull de Mort (Polarized); so I'm inclined to [Hail Izzy the Great and Terrible](post/120820456897/khr-flames-hard-or-soft)'s theories.

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

Yuni was tiny and her enemy was large, bulky, and preparing to ram his shield to her body. His three friends were hiding behind places.

If she moves to the right, the cutlass user will slash her.

If she moves to the left, the revolver-toting psychopath will shoot her.

If she jumps upward to avoid the attack… the boxing-man's jumping knee strike will kill her.

That's okay. She was an Active Sky Flame User. Just remember what Tsuna taught her! Stay calm, palm forward, focus on why you fight, bend the knee a little to sprint—

"Yuni!" Hands grabbed her small body from falling off the baby crib. Baby Yuni recognized her as the woman who will wipe her tears with her sleeves before dying.

Yuni patiently waits for her mouth to be able to say the words 'Mama I love you'.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

When little Tsuna was two weeks old, he learned that it was the twenty seventh time the nurse bathed him in the bathtub he was touching.

The same bathtub where another baby with different genitalia died four years sixty nine days eight hours forty three minutes and twelve seconds ago.

Tsuna remembered the female baby's image and time vaguely over the years, and according to Nana he began to throw giant rackets during every bathtime since then.

He stopped trying to wrangle his way out of his mom's hold when he touched her and caught a glimpse of her swimming in a waterpark with her friends. They were smiling and laughing. Playing in the water can actually be fun!

He liked bathing with rubber honey bear, white duckling, and purple aeroplane toys Nana gave him. They've been hers when she was a toddler and had been dumped inside a carton box for sixteen years forty one days one hour thirteen minutes and thirty nine seconds.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

"Is that a baby? Where—why—how," he coughed. "You were never pregnant…?"

"I heard crying," she shook the baby gently. She cooed when the little baby sneezed cutely. "He was placed in a basket inside a dumpster. How cruel." The woman sighed morosely before picking up his hand and placing it over the baby's head.

"Okay. Wow. A Potential Sky. Great. Awesome! Have I ever mentioned how ridiculous your luck is?"

That's what he recalled about how he ended up as Byakuran Gesso.

One of the many recollections at least. They're kind of mixed up, like paper sheets he had never bothered to file neatly and suddenly needed to read them all over again.

In another parallel dimension he had been born to a completely different set of parents from this dimension.

In another there wasn't one but two of him – twins. Except one died one minute after he was born.

There was another glimpse where his birth had terrible timing and his mother was forced to push him out of her womb inside the taxi that was speeding towards the general hospital.

There was one where woke up covered in blood, crying in the doctor's arms like a normal baby.

He's still trying to figure out which one was actually  _his_.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .


	2. Cloudy Glasses, Sealed Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hearing it from Fon's side, Reborn sounds like a sociopath. 
> 
> Then you would hear from Reborn's side, and Fon seems like a monster to you now.
> 
> The more powerful you are the stronger you are and the more in danger you are. The world is funny like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am amazed. It's only 532 words (excluding the intro author's note) and yet I got 200-ish views in under 6 hours after posting. It's delivered in snapshots my reader army so if you have any ideas or fantasies or lines climbing out of your brain wanting to be realized, don't hesitate to PM me out of the blue 'cause there is 97.3 percent chance I'd write 'em out immediately. You guys gave me a bunch of scenes for the next chapter already thank you~!
> 
> Question: But what about the Vongola Hyper Intuition? It's a damn life hack and you know it! It's like a supernatural cheat code that will tell Tsuna what to choose, what to avoid, what to reject or believe in, etcetera. I can't differentiate Hyper Intuition with normal intuition/instincts very very smart and observant people have. You know, like, Reborn or Sherlock Holmes or Shinichi Kudo.
> 
> I apologize that the snapshots are randomized and that the chapters aren't strictly chronological. I love KHR and am writing it as I please as a… relaxing project, not the usual intense works I'd do for my other stories with around 100-300 pages of world building notes (I'm more invested in world building the stories rather than actually writing them all out chronologically. My own love frustrates me). This is a peculiar child of a peculiar brain. Thank you most kindly for your time and for, if you may be so inclined, a memento of your visit in the form of a review.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr! [tasacci Td03](https://tasaccitd03.tumblr.com)

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

Reborn could blend into the background mere seconds after announcing his intimidating presence to the whole world. A talented sniper can shoot a rifle bullet with ninety nine percent accuracy through an entire two hundred meters, Reborn managed the feat with two handguns. A hit wouldn't realize their reputation had taken a dive through the cliff until Reborn revealed he had infiltrated their main base. An assassin would be walking through the street as relaxed as ever before dropping dead out of the blue, shot by a bullet through a silenced gun.

Reborn was very talented to have succeeded so many hits at a seemingly non-stop rate. He proved his capabilities that the underworld had no compunction to universally agree that he was the World's Greatest Hitman. Yet anytime his abilities are challenged, Fon was one of the few who can tell Reborn became single-minded in proving those questions wrong.

His will was strong. During the heat of moments, Reborn can still maintain level-headed thinking. Fon admired his colleague's calm mind. Yet Fon also noticed that that very trait makes Reborn very… cold.

His single-mindedness never gave Reborn a tunnel vision, as far Fon can tell. But the things Reborn did do paint him to be a little insane. As criminals Fon could not describe Reborn or himself as a good or bad person, but he could never tell if Reborn was  _decent_. Reborn's morality is… dependent of the situation? His whims? His missions? Fon could only describe it as extremely subjective.

The man values life. Maybe. Fon saw him protecting civilians who were unwilling bystander during a cross fire. But then Fon noticed Reborn doesn't stop a school teenager from wandering into the shady part of the streets, letting the girl get snuffed out of consciousness with chloroform as he read his next hit's files.

Fon could trust Reborn and expect him to betray Fon at the same time.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

Reborn was not an emotionless killing machine. He could laugh and enjoy a good lay. He was able to summon up a nigh-unreadable poker face at will. His smiles were fifty fifty sincere or sadistic (fake).

People who can smile sincerely all the time creeped him out, Reborn said to himself. He was always honest with himself.

Their faces aren't stretched painfully. They were genuinely enjoying the conversation they were having, despite the disturbing thoughts they have in their mind at the time (Fon's like that).

Their grins were happy and their eyes shone with joy, clearly paying attention to the topics which were not even important, their minds empty of assassination scenarios until  _snap_ , their companion's head was detached from the body (Fon's like that).

He had stalked the World's Greatest Martial Artist during his work a few times. Reborn valued his skill to read people's thoughts greatly, and Fon greatly unnerved him with the way he could be an ordinary conversation civvie buddy both inside and outside his mind with his targets, never having any ill intentions leak out till the last second where his hands would already be around the targets' necks – or jab the chest and force the heart to stop beating.

Fon doesn't even bother about leaving fingerprints most of the time. Reborn was cautious about leaving any tracks of his hair strands or spit or skin. Fon just hoisted the dead body with an arm, apologize to the restaurant or inn's owners for his friend's "sudden lack of consciousness", and disintegrate the corpse entirely somewhere. Video footage deleted, feet already gone from the very town.

No trace, no fuss.

Knowing that someone like Fon could be leashed with something as simple as affectional ties brought a small relief to Reborn.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

He was only six years old but was clearly talented in the field of engineering – from what the CEDEF members could gather from a day of spying the kid. While unhappy with his grandfather who was "way too stern and traditional", he clearly loves his sister and mother, both of whom love him back.

Iemitsu doesn't want to tear the family apart. So he sealed the boy's powerful Lightning flames. It's a pity, but this way the little boy would be able to live a normal life.

Children who awaken their flames early in life are always quickly found out by the mafia. Before ignorant civilians start telling the world about flames, the mafia would pluck them out.

Flames are hereditary, thus after almost two centuries of flames users being inducted into the mafia since Vongola Primo's era, most flame users are born within a family with underworld history. Some, like that little Lightning boy, were probably a descendent of a bastard child some mafia had from a random fuck.

Some, though, awaken very powerful flames. Iemitsu remembers a time when this was a very good thing. That was how he had gotten involved into the Vongola famiglia when he awakened classic flames. He even hit the jackpot by possessing Sky flames.

Now, newly activated civvies are actively abducted into heinous human experimentation by the Estraneo famiglia.

"I swear Lady Estraneo was hit in the head too many times," Lal said, flipping her phone shut. "Antonio found a kid's body dumped. He already identified him as Yorha's (Estraneo's current Head's) cousin twice removed. Poor kid was a Sky and couldn't handle that vile famiglia's tests anymore."

"Are you telling me Antonio got proof?"

"No," Lal growled in distaste. "Those were the kid's last words. Fuck, our intel in that famiglia's fucking shitty."

"That family's agents' loyalties are fucking hard to break, I'll give you that," Iemitsu snorted.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There. Hope that last scene was enough of a reason as to why Iemitsu and Nono would place a seal on Tsuna's flames. I really don't understand why there are a lot of fics where Tsuna loves his dad and Nono when they made it clear that the seal messed up Tsuna's senses/personality/coordination. I'm not aiming for Tsuna to hate them, but please, address that particular issue. Flame Sealing is often portrayed very, very, disadvantageous, or harmful, or outdated and I don't know if this is true in canon or if for the past years KHR fanfiction readers almost universally agree that Tsuna's only that level of useless due being Sealed.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr! [tasacci Td03](https://tasaccitd03.tumblr.com)
> 
> Follow me on ffn! [Td03](https://www.fanfiction.net/~td03) (҂｀ﾛ´)︻デ═一 ＼(º □ º l|l)/ I have a lot of prompts on my profile~


	3. Silent Yucca

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Hey, Tsuna! Your papa's missed you so much! How are you doing sport? Your grades going up? You better not drop out before I see you next!"
> 
> Annoying.
> 
> "Uh. Not really. I might need to ask my friends for help."
> 
> "Great, great. It's always good to have friends to rely on. Anything interesting happening lately?"
> 
> "Not much. I joined a school gang. We went to war today. It was pretty interesting."
> 
> Excerpt from "Dead-Eyed Tsuna" by wyrvel
> 
> :3 What an awesome way to tell your estranged father about your day.
> 
> Tsk. Yuni's name is… Japanese I forgot that she's not. I think. I had written Aria calling her "Yuni-chan!" but I'm too lazy to replace it.
> 
> January 26, 2018: Fixed
> 
> I didn't watch the anime I just caught a meme on this but… is it true that Iemitsu forced the Lightning Ring on Lambo?! 'Cause this is changing everything in my plans. Actually, it's already halfway re-routing my plot treelines. If Lambo was forced…

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

The man was  _so_ easy, Reborn grinned to himself. The hitman practically strutted towards the man's night table. His target's back was open as he checks any pending to do list and set up his phone alarm. Reborn's didn't made a sound, whether it be his footsteps or the crinkle of his suit pocket as he fished out the sachet. Swiftly ripping it, Reborn poured the powder inside the glass of water. It sank to the bottom; colorless.

The man didn't sense Reborn's presence at all, and shortly after the hitman sneaked back to the apartment's balcony, drank his usual water before sleeping as usual.

Reborn browsed his newest smartphone, getting into the locked phone as easy as he pleased. There was a couple of gaming apps inside that were amusing and somewhat useful to learn. Several useful podcasts, vanilla porn, a boatload of contacts list that may come in handy, and other garbage.

Moments later, Reborn entered the room again. It was silent. There was no snoring like it had been yesterday and the days before. He checked to be sure. The man was no longer breathing.

Reborn hummed. He gingerly placed a stem of Yucca flower he had happened to pass by and remembered it was the man's favorite type of flower. All day the flowers hang down like bells. Reborn picked one when they bloomed at dusk.

It was a shame. The guy awakened his dying will flames from an encounter with some thugs. The mafia would have tried to blackmail him into hiding and working for them but unfortunately for him, he was in the law enforcement and showing signs he was going to tell the truth to his trusted superior about his apparent superpower. The mafia just had to off him, really. Reborn wasn't looking forward to common people calling them demonic or some sin, out of jealousy and misunderstanding.

Reborn began to pick the place apart. He might find some stash of valuables he could pawn off, who knows?

An old revolver, two bottle of Salmari, a packet of high quality coffee obviously stashed for special occasions, good quality medications and a rather poorly hidden, small block of gold.

Done with his looting, Reborn began to 'fix' the place.

The next day, news of robbery downtown appeared. Some noses turned, but generally, people didn't care. Detached as they were with how frequent terrible news are fed on the stream.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

Tsuna woke up one morning next to a cold body.

He vaguely remembered tracing his love's face, hands shaking and too scared to open her eyes because he didn't want to see her lifeless eyes or if her pupils are gone or something equally horrific before remembering that he wasn't a thirty year old man.

Tsuna got out of the bed. He folded the blanket neatly and did his business in the bathroom before coming down the stairs. He spotted his jacket – now slightly wet instead of soaked from rain – on the couch next to the man sitting on the couch.

"Morning, Yamamoto-san." Tsuna yawned a little at the end of his greeting, dangling his feet on the couch.

The sushi chef smiled kindly, making Tsuna happy. The man had been so sad and miserable when the woman – Tsuna assumed she must have been wife – died beside him. "Good morning, did you have a good sleep?"

"Hmm-hmm. Thank you for letting me stay the night, Yamamoto-san!"

"Of course, of course. Just try not to be so far away from your house so late at night. You're lucky I spotted you running under all that storm last night. How about some breakfast before you go home?"

Tsuna shook his head. "Mom must be really worried already. I should head home right away."

"Well, alright. Tell Sawada-san to stay safe too."

"Nana." Tsuna corrected. "Mom likes to be called by her first name better."

"Oh, well, Nana-san, then."

Tsuna nodded and jumped off the couch. He bowed. "Bye, Yamamoto-san! Tell Takeshi-san I'm okay, please."

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

* * *

Yuni's vision of the future varies. Sometimes it was her future, sometimes her mother, sometimes random people, sometimes people she knew.

Mostly it was hers, a white haired man's, and a brown haired boy's.

By the time Yuni faced Tsuna in real life, she already knew quite a bit about him. He was a good person. Tsuna always helped whenever he can, and she envied watching the rapport between him and his famiglia. She wanted to be his friend too. It would be nice too, wouldn't it? Her first non-mafia friend, because Tsuna wasn't mafia yet. He was still a civilian and still insists to be so and still acts to be so, still innocent—

Fire. Fire.  _So much fire_ flames weren't really fire. They were just what one's resolve manifest into. Rain flames act more like water and would douse fire. Mist flames can fake lighting up a fire realistically. Sky flames' property is harmony and she knew it gives off warmth but it wouldn't actually light up a candle or trigger an explosion when it came into contact with gasoline but Tsuna actually melted Kuran—

In a blink of an eye the lava-like flame technique was gone, and she was still standing on the road.

A step to the left would lead her to Kuran.

If she turned right, she'd be with Tsuna.

* * *

. o . 0 . o .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm. I got annoyed with how the power to see into the future is frequently used. The way 'seers' come in and act like they know everything about a person already, calling them a good human with such conviction. Everyone does bad and good things in their life. Seers see their actions, not what they were thinking or their motivation - typically and generally speaking of course (I do not actually know a true seer).


	4. To Free You From That Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During his flight back to Japan from Italy, Tsuna didn’t expect he’d be sitting next to a real life princess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little bro: Back to Katekyo?
> 
> baby sis: Haven't you been obsessing over One Piece?
> 
> little bro: Yeah, I'm impressed - one month straight without quitting or getting distracted with another fandom. Finally found your perfect anime?
> 
> elder nerd: Yup! This one's a brain child from Mera Mera no Mi reminding me of flames and thinking up one character who is a redhead but opposite to Nami.
> 
> baby sis: Nami the thief... to Shirayuki the pharmacist?
> 
> elder nerd: I never said my brain makes sense!
> 
> Warnings/Tags: Loosely inspired by the TV series Ghost Whisperer. Sporadic updates. Mind "reading". "Telepathy". This chapter is kind of a crossover with Akagami no Shirayukihime.

To Tsuna, Reborn was like the Big Bang giving birth to the universe. The first three minutes was just surreal and too blurry, and everything before that point was just u.n.k.n.o.w.n., because now Tsuna has this batshit insane life with equally crazy family taking up his mind 24/7.

Appearance-wise, Reborn should have been one of _those_ types. Someone dark, someone cool, someone he _really really should avoid_. His bright yellow flames betrayed his personality though. He certainly wasn't the brooding type.

"He made me climb a freaking cliffside without letting me concentrate on my positions on the rocks because I have to pay attention to his lecture about politics while he was cosplaying as a green _toad_ on a hot air balloon," Tsuna complaining, moaning at the memory while his chest limped against the desk, his chin just shy of overturning the empty cup of coffee near it.

"Your tutor sounds eccentric," He let the woman on the seat beside his pat him in the back, absently confirming that she's a civilian who lacked the firmness one gains when they have experience in self-defense. She was four years older than him, but despite their different ages they find each other easy to talk to.

They conversed for a while when the topic of tutors came up and they latched onto it to moan about their mutual slave-drivers.

"Mine is not a grown man who has dwarfism—" Tsuna had come up with a lie about Reborn's current appearance as a two year old. The hitman wasn't here, but Tsuna could never be sure. He could be having an expresso on top of the plane for all he knew. "—he's really only twelve years old, but he has his PhD in Pharmacology already. And probably more. I remember my school teachers asking us only the important things in our textbooks. But he doesn't. He questioned me on _everything_. If I need to experiment, I have to catch the test animals myself. If I get wounded or sick, I have to make the cures myself. If I made a terrible mistake he'd make me spend several nights in the wood with more assignments so I have to catch food and get cleaned and find shelter while doing my homework and it's scary 'cause he sends out _snakes_ and I don't care if he claims they're a rare breed of herbivorous snakes, there are no such thing, and they aren't _friendly_."

The redheaded woman had lost herself in her rant and was now hugging herself to stop the shuddering. "If I don't love my work half as much as I do, I would QUIT."

"I hate you right now," Tsuna sulked. " _I_ can't quit my job. The only one able to take my position can't do it 'cause the fa—company's so stubborn about ancient rules!"

"Old people." She nodded decisively in agreement. "And don't swear Tsuna-kun."

He almost said _famiglia_ and ratted out his involvement in the mafia to a civilian student of someone in the fucking royal family, thank God Reborn isn't on his head right now (the hitman took a different flight schedule).

"Ano, Shirayuki-san, I know it's kind of rude to ask, but how come you're part of Clarines Kingdom when you're obviously Japanese? Er, if you are from Japan! I mean, your name's obviously Japanese, uuuuuh."

Shirayuki giggled at his flustered expression. Then she clapped her hands and blinked her large green eyes. "Well, I happen to be engaged to the prince of Clarines."

His shoulders sagged. Two thoughts ran through his mind, one being _I'm sitting with a real-life princess in my first-class flight_ and the other _I-Pin's fantasy that I'd befriend a princess came true._

A princess who was technically a normal civilian all her life and is now studying under a young, prodigious royal pharmacist of all things but _still_. Eh. Who was Tsuna to disbelief her? He's being tutored by the man who was universally accepted in the underworld as the World's Greatest Hitman.

The Vongola Decimo begged whatever deity to stop any more incidents involving dying will flames that would traumatize another sane person because previous experiences such as those always ended up with Reborn cocking a gun and telling them that they either join Vongola or die.

Tsuna peered at the other passengers behind him, hoping none of them were secretly part of the FBI or something equally preposterous to a normal civilian.

Then again, he wasn't really a normal civilian anymore, was he? Tsuna eyed the ring that was his constant pet peeve as if it was embodying Evil.

"That's a really pretty ring!" Shirayuki- _hime_ exclaimed and startled Tsuna out of his thoughts. Yeah, it was made from platinum and a beautiful sapphire which Tsuna firmly believed was an ancient magical blue rock and the little flecks of _obsidian_ of all things were kinda pretty _but it was so not worth the chaos_.

_Tsu-kun, welcome home! How was your day, dear?_

He couldn't exactly tell her _Mom, Yuni committed suicide or I think I took over several gangs or I made friends with a serial killer or I fixed a ten generations old grudge of a fellow famiglia or I time-traveled and found out my future self was horrible and made me commit my first kill._

That life was flipping mad. It was also flipped back on. Byakuran's alive. And well, he and Yuni made sure to keep this one well-grounded in reality so he won't successfully build another megalomaniac empire but still.

His head _melted_. Tsuna saw it. He saw it distort and practically cave in itself from the blast of flames that way too potent and way too hot and not what he planned but he wasn't thinking about quitting cause Byakuran's needs to just — stop.

"Tsuna-kun? You look upset."

"Ah! I did? It was nothing. I was just thinking of something… silly . It was weeks ago, really."

"Ooh~ did you accidentally embarrassed yourself?" Her grin widened when Tsuna's cheeks exploded with flecks of red. "Our brain is silly like that. It just pops up our embarrassing moments out of the blue for no reason."

The brunet chuckled and scratched his cheek. That was certainly an annoying fact.

**Author's Note:**

> I wish someone out there will continue [Seito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seito/pseuds/Seito)'sKHR slash Mr. and Mrs. Smith AU R27 story "[Let Them Come](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11448630)".


End file.
